The present invention relates to communication systems and, more particularly, to a message system and method for tagging and organizing voice mail messages.
Modern communications systems, such as a telecommunication system, frequently include voice mail, which permits a calling party to leave a message for subsequent retrieval by a to called party (e.g., the party to whom the message is addressed). The voice mail feature is often used when the called party does not answer an incoming call initiated by the calling party and the call is automatically redirected to the called party's voice mailbox. At this time, the calling party may leave a voice mail message for the called party, which message may be subsequently retrieved by the called party (i.e., the intended recipient) by issuance of a command or series of commands to the communications system that has stored the message for such later retrieval.
The voice mail feature is also used where both the calling and called parties have mailboxes. In this manner, the calling party may create a message in the calling party's mailbox, address the message to the called party's mailbox, and transmit the message from the calling party's mailbox to the called party's mailbox for subsequent retrieval by the called party.
Centralized voice mail system processes generally involve the storage of recorded voice messages on storage equipment associated with the communication system's switching network. The called party or subscriber retrieves the message(s) at a subsequent time when the called party issues a command or series of commands through the called party's telephone station set to the storage equipment of the communications network.
Voice mail systems allow multiple callers to leave messages in a called party's mailbox when the called party cannot answer a telephone call. Called parties are frequently unable to retrieve and delete messages from the mailbox as quickly as they are deposited, thus requiring voice mailboxes to have the ability to retain multiple messages.
In a typical communication network, a called party accesses a mailbox by dialing into the voice mail system, either directly, in the case of an in-house system, or through the telephone network, in the case of centralized network systems. The user then supplies a mailbox number and password. A major drawback of these voice mail systems is that the messages must be listened to serially, i.e. only one message can be played to that one user at a time. Overlapping or concurrent retrieval is not possible which clearly has a negative impact on productivity.
Although some systems allow high priority messages to be presented to the called party first, this merely changes the order of the sequence, not its length. The length of time to retrieve and delete messages keeps a user busy for a long period of time. The situation is exacerbated by improvements in storage technology which will make it possible to create mailboxes with many hours of message storage. Furthermore, many times it is difficult to determine the identity of callers leaving voice mail message without having to listen to at least a portion or majority of the voice mail message. Thus, a voice mail subscriber cannot prioritize listening of their voice mail messages since the subscriber cannot readily determine the identity of the callers who have left voice mail messages.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a system and user interface by which voice mail messages can be tagged, indexed and catalogued by caller thereby aiding in organization, retrieval, searching and storage of these messages.